1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an information recognition system and a method for controlling the information recognition system.
2. Related Art
There has been an electronic whiteboard which can convert the contents written on a display surface by hand into electronic information. Moreover, an interactive electronic whiteboard having the function of inputting the electronically converted information to a computer has also been proposed. The interactive electronic whiteboard can import the information written by hand to the computer by almost the same operation as the operation performed on the existing whiteboard by using the application function for the electronic whiteboard. This makes it possible to conduct efficient meetings or classes which provide a high level of visibility.
JP-A-2000-43485 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) describes an electronic whiteboard system which uses an electronic whiteboard. The electronic whiteboard system described in Patent Document 1 includes a PDP (plasma display panel) for displaying a character and an image, a touch input device provided on a front surface of the PDP, and a computer which performs display control of the PDP based on an input from the touch input device, and the PDP and the touch input device form a display surface and a write surface of the electronic whiteboard. In the computer, electronic whiteboard software, character recognition software which recognizes a handwritten character input via the touch input device and generates character information, and the like are installed.
Incidentally, there are two general methods for recognizing a handwritten character written on the electronic whiteboard. The first is to start the character recognition software on the computer, display a region in which a character is to be written by hand, and write, in the region, a character to be recognized. The second is to perform drawing in a particular region by using a free-form curve and then make the character recognition software on the computer recognize the form of the free-form curve as a character.
The electronic whiteboard enlarges image data supplied from the computer and displays the enlarged image data. As a result, in the above-described first method, as in Patent Document 1, since the region itself in which a character is to be written by hand is enlarged and displayed on the display surface, an operator has to write a large character accordingly. In addition, also in the second method, since the display surface itself is enlarged and projected, it is necessary to write a large character.
However, the larger the display surface of the electronic whiteboard or a projection surface of a projector becomes, the more difficult for the operator situated in a position near the display surface or the projection surface to write a large character. Moreover, writing a large character reduces the number of characters which can be written on the display surface.
Now, there are various methods for detecting a trajectory of handwriting operation, such as a method which uses a whiteboard having a pressure-sensitive surface and a method which uses a position sensing system using infrared radiation. An apparatus for detecting the trajectory of handwriting operation outputs position data according to a detection resolution of each apparatus. In the past, when the computer received the position data, the computer converted the position data into a display resolution of the computer, converted the display resolution into coordinates on the display screen of the computer, and then performed character recognition processing. However, when the detection resolution was lower than the display resolution and the handwritten character was too small, the character sometimes became so illegible that character recognition could not be performed when the data of the trajectory of the handwritten character was converted into the display resolution.
As described above, the existing electronic whiteboard system is less user-friendly because the system requires the operator to write a larger character than is necessary or cannot perform character recognition when a small character is written, and has room for improvement.